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Monday, June 29, 2015

I'm back! Sorry for the silence. I was in New York for work, and some play and didn't have my computer with me to add any posts. It was a last minute trip, but quite fun. Anyhow, I wanted to share some pictures from my trip to New York City. Mostly, because it was my first time and I really enjoyed it. I loved the scenery, food, and the cool vibe.

I stayed at the NoMo SoHo. Such a cool hotel, with lots of to do in the area.

Here's the first day of the city. The Girls With Glasses did a rooftop event for HP. I couldn't get over the location. It was so cool and such a nice breeze!

A day of work in the Brooklyn Studios with the gals.

View from the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brookyln. Such amazing views!

And we couldn't go to New York without having some pizza. Seriously, so delicious.

Juliana's was a great place, and would go again in a heartbeat.

One my day of exploring, we went to the Empire State Building. It was so amazing to go just because it reminds me of An Affair to Remember! Such a classic.

And the inside of the building is pretty cool too. Oh, and who can forget about Sleepless in Seattle too!

Going to Shake Shack is a must. It was so yummy, especially that bun!

Walking to Central Park. So many pretty things to see!

While exploring, we also went to Times Square and bought some tickets to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, which was great because I was sooo pleasantly surprised. I loved it, and would very much recommend it. The music is fabulous throughout the whole show.

I really wish I had better pictures of this place, but the place was so dim it was hard to capture any. We had dinner at Balthazar, twice! The first night we had the duck confit, homemade fettuccine and french onion soup... and it was fabulous. Second time we went we ordered the soup again, a salad, and yummy desserts!

And getting our robe and face masks on in our suite! I had a fun time with these girls! Made my first New York City experience awesome.

And in the meantime while I was gone, my floors in my house got installed. It was so nice to leave for a few days and coming back to progress! Will share those pictures soon!!!!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Floral cakes have been a trend recently in what I've been making. Some with real flowers, and many with fondant/gumpaste flowers. It's been quite fun since I usually do lots of kids cakes. But I think I have a new favorite, floral cakes!

A couple months ago, I made a naked cake for The Girls With Glasses Show's Ulive series. I was used as a prop for a floral Bridal Shower. I've never made one before, and it actually was not so hard to do. The fresh flowers just looked lovely, and loved how elegant it looked.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

This hot weather has me feeling like more easy breezy colors and clothes. Something about light blue has been keeping me a bit cooler, I'm sure it's all mental but it really helps. Or maybe I'm just inclined to the color now that I know we're having a boy, but either way...I say this color is a great for this upcoming summer.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Last week I made a cake for my friend's birthday. I didn't make it too big, mostly because she had a lot of cake recently so I decided to make it simple. Well, simple in my terms. It was an 8 inch round and about 2.5 inches thick. I knew I wanted to make a lemon cake so I had the idea of making it look like a lemon slice. So of course I went to Pinterest for inspiration. And there was nothing similar to what I wanted to make. I wanted something literal, and nothing. And then I found an awesome grapefruit cake that had the similar idea to what I wanted to do, and I can say it became a bit of my inspiration.

For the lemon cake, I used a recipe from the amazing Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. It's an easy recipe. Although for the cake batter, I didn't use buttermilk. and made a lemon buttercream. For a cake like this, I probably would have also make a lemon curd too, if I had more time. I would have taken more pictures of the whole process, but I didn't think I would be sharing it on my blog since the cake was rushed. Sorry guys for the lack of details!

And since I'm missing so many details, I'll explain how I decorated the cake. The cake is covered in white fondant. Once you have it covered, you can poke holes on the rim of the cake with a toothpick to give it more of the lemon exterior texture. Once I was done doing that, I got my 3 different yellow food gels (Wilton's Buttercup, Golden, and Lemon), and mixed with a bit of water to act more of a "watercolor" and started to paint. The edge of the cake is painted in the darkest yellow which is the golden yellow. Once I was done with the edge, I went to the slices. I figured 8 slices was a good amount. I painted them by hand and went with a blend of the lemon and buttercup yellows. And to give it a bit more texture, I finished it off with a tiny bit of the golden yellow(the darkest shade) Make sure to leave enough of the white gap between the slices, and edge just to distinguish each slice.

The cake will look a bit glossy since it is painted, and has some water on the gels. But it actually dries and looks really cool when it's done. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised with the cake. Mostly because I was working against time, and I hadn't truly planned on the cake. I seriously just made it.

Here you can see how small it actually is. It is a good personal cake for someone's birthday. And what makes the cake fun is when you actually cut into the cake, you can literally be cutting a slice a lemon! Enjoy!!!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

I finally got around to taking pictures of our current kitchen. I know I've mentioned this, but we are getting our kitchen renovated soon. Hopefully we start this month. But before that gets started, I wanted to share the state of our kitchen now.

From a distance, I know it doesn't look too bad, I know. Just too many little things everywhere.

Our kitchen is a bit of a galley kitchen. It feels smaller to me, and I feel like the space has so much potential.

And all the appliances need to be updated.

I love the idea of a double oven especially since I bake, but I never use the bottom oven.

We have counter on the other side of the kitchen with a window looking into the kitchen, but it feels so out of the kitchen and not convenient.

And this room is right besides the kitchen, that I wish it flowed more with the space. It feels too seperate. And don't get started on the patch of carpet!

And here are some details of what drives me insane with this space.

I'm all for granite. But these granite tiles are really not ideal for me. I use fondant for cakes a lot, and rolling it on the countertop isn't an option. And I also don't like the grout and gunk you get in-between the tiles.

This window is just too large for our kitchen and it wasn't installed properly.

Makeshift vent holes, not sure why they did that.

The vent is also an issue. It wasn't installed properly either, so it's actually taking cabinet space.

And the electrical was probably done without professionals. The outlets overlap each other and so many have weird gaps around the frame.

And this outlet isn't even straight. Haha!

Water damaged floors. It's been that way since we moved in. I'm guessing the previous owners fridge leaked. I think a nice tile may be better for the kitchen.

We also have an intercom in the kitchen too! And it's not functional either.

Honestly, the list of things could keep going, like old cabinets, and extremely large sink, and so on. I'm just glad we will be getting a new kitchen soon! I'm just sooooo excited. Trying to get as much baking and cooking done before it's a bunch of to-go for a few weeks while we renovate. Yay!

I''ll keep you guys posted on the progress of this project...So stay tuned!